MotoMania
April 26, 2008, 04:02
Motorola buys in to Mobile Virtualization company
Posted by Ben on Friday, April 25th, 2008 at 11:17 am
Motorola is in the process of investing in a company called VirtualLogix - their tech makes it possible for handset makers to use virtualization to run two OSes on a single phone - not unlike the virtual machines that we know and love in the PC world…
Apparently the idea is not actually to run two OSes, but more around security:
"Using virtualization, a handset maker can run one operating system that controls important basic phone functions, and separate it from another operating system that an end-user can customize and add applications to. Separating the two protects the basic phone functions from being corrupted by applications that a user may download."
Sounds like somewhat of a cunning plan, especially now we are firmly in the era of the Smartphone…
At the moment VirtualLogix products are being used in another way - to reduce phone development costs:
"NXP Semiconductor, for example, is able to use one processor to run the wireless stack as well as the mobile Linux operating system, something that would normally require a separate application processor….It enables a phone to be built at a price under [US]$100 with full multimedia capabilities…"
Personally, I think this is another interesting take on getting things done in Mobile devices - an innvoative architecture, which could deliver some customisable, yet secure devices. And that is no bad thing.
Source:
Motorola Official Website. (http://www.motorola.com/mediacenter/news/detail.jsp?globalObjectId=9529_9458_23&pageLocaleId=2026)
IntoMobile. (http://www.intomobile.com/2008/04/25/motorola-buys-in-to-mobile-virtualization-company.html)
PC World. (http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/144865/motorola_invests_in_mobile_virtualization_company. html)
Posted by Ben on Friday, April 25th, 2008 at 11:17 am
Motorola is in the process of investing in a company called VirtualLogix - their tech makes it possible for handset makers to use virtualization to run two OSes on a single phone - not unlike the virtual machines that we know and love in the PC world…
Apparently the idea is not actually to run two OSes, but more around security:
"Using virtualization, a handset maker can run one operating system that controls important basic phone functions, and separate it from another operating system that an end-user can customize and add applications to. Separating the two protects the basic phone functions from being corrupted by applications that a user may download."
Sounds like somewhat of a cunning plan, especially now we are firmly in the era of the Smartphone…
At the moment VirtualLogix products are being used in another way - to reduce phone development costs:
"NXP Semiconductor, for example, is able to use one processor to run the wireless stack as well as the mobile Linux operating system, something that would normally require a separate application processor….It enables a phone to be built at a price under [US]$100 with full multimedia capabilities…"
Personally, I think this is another interesting take on getting things done in Mobile devices - an innvoative architecture, which could deliver some customisable, yet secure devices. And that is no bad thing.
Source:
Motorola Official Website. (http://www.motorola.com/mediacenter/news/detail.jsp?globalObjectId=9529_9458_23&pageLocaleId=2026)
IntoMobile. (http://www.intomobile.com/2008/04/25/motorola-buys-in-to-mobile-virtualization-company.html)
PC World. (http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/144865/motorola_invests_in_mobile_virtualization_company. html)